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In this paper, a number of ports in Hong Kong and mainland China are grouped and the concentration ratio and Herfindahl-Hirschman index of the container throughputs are calculated to analyze the changes in the port and shipping industry in Hong Kong. By tracing the trajectory of the barycenter of the standard deviation ellipse of the annual container throughputs, we can analyze whether port transportation is shifting away from Hong Kong towards mainland China. The impacts of underlying policies of mainland China and Hong Kong on the port and shipping industry in Hong Kong are also revealed. The analyses show that the port and shipping industry in Hong Kong has experienced three development stages: rapid growth from the 1970s-1990s, solid growth from 2000 to 2005, and sluggish growth from 2006 to 2015. • The concentration ratio and Herfindahl-Hirschman index of the container throughputs are analyzed for a port group consisting Hong Kong port and a number of ports in mainland China. • The growth and down of the port and shipping industry in Hong Kong are described. • The impacts of underlying policies of mainland China and Hong Kong on the port and shipping industry in Hong Kong are revealed. • It is found that port transportation is shifting away from Hong Kong towards mainland China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between shipping accessibility and maritime transport demand is studied based on the relationship between production and consumption and stochastic frontier analysis. First, the consumption market of the products produced in a region is classified into the local market, non-local domestic market and foreign market. Then, to obtain the potential export volumes, the production function, extended linear expenditure system model, and multi-regional input-output model are built to calculate the regional production, the consumption in local market, and the consumption in non-local market, respectively. Second, the impact of potential export volumes and shipping accessibility on maritime transport demand is studied based on the stochastic frontier gravity model. Finally, the data from 2006 to 2012 for eight domestic regions and eight overseas regions were used to conduct an empirical study. The findings indicate that the maritime transport demand is positively correlated with shipping accessibility and that the region with higher accessibility has the greater demand. Furthermore, adding shipping lines in Quanzhou Port had the largest positive effect on Chinese exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A method for determining the paths for a port to upgrade its industry was provided. • A method for determining the optimal scale of a port cluster was proposed. • A multiperiod investment and withdrawal scheme to integrate the ports was designed. Abstract Port integration in a region with multiport gateways (R-MPG) is studied in the case when port supply surpasses shipping demand. First, the feasible paths for ports with overcapacity to transform and upgrade their industry are analyzed. Second, a method for determining the optimal scale of port clusters is put forth based on a continuous approximation approach. Then, a multi-period integration decision model and port integration method is proposed. Finally, two typical R-MPGs in China are used for empirical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The foreign trade transport accessibility (FTTA) of Mainland China to overseas regions is studied in terms of the shipping connectivity and achievable market scales. First, the concept of FTTA is defined. Second, the path choice behavior of shippers is analyzed, and a method to measure FTTA is proposed. Last, with 357 cities in Mainland China as the origins and eight overseas regions as the destinations, the FTTAs from origins to destinations are evaluated. The study is helpful to acquaint decision-makers with the FTTA’s spatial distribution and to offer information by which China can expand its export-oriented industry and optimize its port and shipping industries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The ship's routing was adopted to organise marine traffic flow and reduce the risk of collision between ships in crowded waters. With the expansion of the world's fleet, ship traffic in shipping bottleneck and chokepoint areas became more and more busy and complex creating serious challenges for navigational safety. Therefore, quantitative collision risk assessment is significantly important for the ships' routeing waters. In this paper, the information entropy method which integrates the K-means clustering based on Automatic Identification System (AIS) data is introduced to quantitatively evaluate the collision risks in the ships' routeing waters. As a case study, the information entropy of Courses Over Ground (COG) for Ningbo-Zhoushan Port (the largest port in the world since 2009) is calculated by using historical AIS data. Then the K-means clustering is used to group the bytes of information entropy of the different legs in the shipping route. We find that in Ningbo-Zhoushan port Precautionary Area (PA) 2, 4 and 7 are the highest risk legs; PA 1, 5 and 6, Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) 16, and 17 are medium-high risk areas. Therefore, ship collision risk prevention measures should be prioritised in those legs. Our contributions provide a novel approach to quantitatively assess ship collision risks in busy waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the seaworthiness characteristics of the waterways and the container origin-destination (OD) flows between the riverside ports on the Yangtze River, China, this article aims to build an integer programming model to optimize the container liner network on the Yangtze River by minimizing the total transportation cost. The model can determine the shipping routes, calling ports, calling sequences, number and type of the used ships. In order to make the model usable, we formulate the waterway’s impedance function and designs a genetic algorithm (GA) based on Frank–Wolf method. In the optimized network, the big ships are used in the midstream of the River while the small ones are adopted on both ends. It differs from the current ship allocating principle by which the small ones run in the upstream while the big ones run in other segments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the global energy crisis and environmental degradation, ports are not only important hubs connecting water and land transportation but also major sources of energy consumption and environmental pollution. How to promote the transformation of ports to green and achieve sustainable development of ports has become the focus of attention in the world. As a major shipping country in the world, China attaches great importance to the issue of air pollutant emissions in port areas and has issued a series of policies on shore-to-ship power in recent years, but due to the lack of endogenous market dynamics, port, and shipping enterprises are not willing to use shore power, and the development of shore power technology is severely restricted. In the research of shore-to-ship power propulsion countermeasures, the existing methods mostly target a single subject and are mostly limited to a static perspective, focusing more on qualitative analysis, while lacking the idea of system modeling. Based on the interactions of the stakeholders involved in the promotion of shore-to-ship power, a game model of strategic choices of the stakeholders, namely the government, the port enterprise, and the shipping companies, is constructed based on evolutionary game theory. For obtaining the benefits matrix and the expected return of the stakeholders under various choices, the parameters in the game model are given. The stability theorem of differential equations is used to find the equilibriums of the choices' games, and the stability of each equilibrium is judged. The evolution mechanism of the strategic choices of all the stakeholders for promoting shore-to-ship power is analyzed through system dynamics simulation in Matlab. The results show that the strategic choices of the government, the port enterprise, and the shipping companies affect each other greatly. Government policies have leading roles in the strategic choices of both port enterprises and shipping companies. An optimal fee range for shore power usage can encourage the growth of the shore-to-ship power system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the high initial costs and the uncertain returns of investment, the efficient green technology in shipping industry, shore power (SP), is still in a developmental dark age, especially its installation at bulk terminals and ships. This study examines the factors influencing the SP installation for bulk terminals and ships, elucidates the impacting mechanisms of one party's installation on the investment returns of the other, and reveals the decisive role of fleet operations in the installation decisions of both parties and corresponding carbon emissions. Employing a dataset representing real-world shipping routes and cargo types, the ship-cargo matching and ships' port-of-calls within a planning horizon are optimized with the objective of maximizing the profit of tramp shipping business by taking SP installation and usage cost into account. Portside SP decision-making model is also conducted to estimate the revenue generated by portside SP usage, and guide portside installation decisions based on the cost-benefit ratio. Finally, recommendations are proposed for ship owner, port operator and government to collaboratively navigate through the dark age of SP development, supported by the further discussion regarding fuel-electricity price gap and port loading efficiency. • Factors influencing the shore power (SP) installation for bulk terminals and ships are listed. • Decisive role of fleet operations in the decisions of both parties are revealed. • Ship-cargo matching and ships' port-of-calls in a horizon are optimized. • Recommendations are proposed for ship owner, port operator to collaboratively navigate through SP dark age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study builds a bi-level programming model to optimize river channel upgrades and liner operation, while minimizing the total cost of container transportation to ports. The upper model determines the optimal channel upgrades, choice of liner size, and liner operating frequency. The sum of the trucking freight, the river liner shipping cost, the CO 2 tax payment, and the depreciation of the investments in channel upgrades and ship purchases is calculated based on official projections of freight demand over 30 years. The lower model determines the optimal container routes. A case study of Zhejiang Province shows that Qiantang River and Hangzhou-Ningbo Canal should be upgraded from Level Ⅳ to Level III waterways, while the Meihu and Zhajiasu Lines should be upgraded from Level Ⅴ to Level IV waterways. Due to these improvements, the mode share of river shipping is projected to increase to 30%, while CO 2 emissions from container port access transportation are estimated to decrease by 23.5 million tons over 30 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]